RE: [gentoo-server] How many years does a Pentium 1GHz PC averagely need to crack IDEA?

[Stuart Stegall]

Also remember that the vast majority of people who might want to steal
something like say credit cards, will instead try to break into your
server and steal your private key.  I would say that in all cases this
is how some hacker somewhere is going to try to get the information.

> -----Original Message-----
> From: TRauMa [mailto:trauma@××××××××××××××.de]
> Sent: Thursday, October 28, 2004 10:22 AM
> To: gentoo-server@l.g.o
> Subject: Re: [gentoo-server] How many years does a Pentium
> 1GHz PC averagely need to crack IDEA?
>
>
> Zhang Weiwu wrote:
>
> > Hello. First my math skill is very bad. I cannot understand the
> > cryptology (even though I tried). I am now using IDEA for
> my server's
> > SSL. My users wish to know how safe it is, I wish I can
> give a clear
> > answer.
> >
> > I don't know if cracking IDEA is anything related to the content
> > length? I mean, does decrypt a 100Bytes encrypted document same
> > difficult as decrypting a 100MBytes document?
>
> Yes. Cracking time depends on algorithm and key length (or key length
> only, if you apply brute force). After you cracked the key, you can
> decrypt the message as fast as anyone having the key.
>
> > If cracking time is not related to content length, how difficult to
> > crack it? If I have a Pentium 1GHz PC, how many years
> averagely do I
> > need to crack it? 1,000 years? 1,000,000 years?
>
> If this is multiple choice, I'd choose the latter :-). Let's just say
> it's not feasible to crack the key, most data corruption is
> done through
> man-in-the-middle, root kits/keylogger, password as post-it on
> pc-screen... Anyone having the ressources to crack IDEA
> should also be
> able to find a weaker link.
>
> HTH,
>     T.
>